Thursday, July 1, 2010

The Brothers Karamazov Read-a-long

Here at the midway point of the year, I've been doing a good job of reading deliberately. I've read the Orange Prize shortlist and plan to read the longlist. I'm reading mostly literary fiction, but I haven't dabbled in the classics yet. Jill at Fizzy Thoughts is hosting a read-a-long of The Brothers Karamazov, and I'm excited (and scared) to join her in reading this classic.

My copy of the K Bros (you’ve got to be kidding if you think I’m typing Karamazov every time) is 776 pages of small print. However, the book is conveniently broken up into 4 parts. And each part has 3 books. That makes 12 books total (plus a short epilogue). It sounds much more manageable like that, doesn’t it?

We’re going to suggest reading a book a week (although if you’re a glutton for punishment and/or a procrastinator, feel free to do all of your reading the night before). But we’re only going to post our summaries/thoughts/pleas for help at the end of each part. Which means we’ll write our posts at the end of weeks 3, 6, 9 and 12.

The official start date for this adventure is July 10th. And here’s the official reading and posting schedule:

Book 1: 7/10-7/16Book 2: 7/17-7/23Book 3: 7/24-7/30Post #1: around July 30/31Book 4: 7/31-8/6Book 5: 8/7-8/13Book 6: 8/14-8/20Post #2: around August 20/21Book 7: 8/21-8/27Book 8: 8/28-9/3Book 9: 9/4-9/10Post #3: around September 10/11Book 10: 9/11-9/17Book 11: 9/18-9/24Book 12 plus the short Epilogue: 9/24-10/1Post #4: around October 1/2The End (you might want to consider a shot or two or three of vodka to celebrate)

If you want to join in this read-a-long too, sign up at Fizzy Thoughts!